For general use: home holiday and family:
In this case the Nikon AF-S 18-200 f3.5/5.6 DX VR is a great choice. The biggest plus is that with 1 lens you will cover all your needs, from wide angle at 18mm to super zoom at 200mm. You only have to carry one lens and just shoot pics. I know some tests have comments on the lens that might stop people from buying it. I have been using it for 1 year now and believe me: the lens is good, very good. Most negative comments in tests are: 1. some barrel distortion at the wide end (this means that straight lines get bended a bit, pe if you take a pic of a brick wall). In real life this is not a problem whatsoever, except if you shoot a lot of architecture... Second drawback would be the sharpness: the lens is indeed not as sharp as a prime lens or a nikon pro lens, but if your main needs are keeping the pics on your computer, having them printed at 20x30 cm or so no one will really see the difference.
Test.
If this lens is too expensive, there is plenty of alternatives. First of all third party lenses with more or less the same specs. 2 manufacturers make a comparable lens: Tamron and Sigma.
The Sigma 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 iF DC HSM OS is good and has an optical stabilizer (OS). The price is more or less half of the nikon.
A bit more expensive then the Sigma (around € 430) is the Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD iF.
This lens also performs well, has an optical stabilizer (VR for vibration reduction) and offers an even bigger zoom of 270mm. Both the Sigma and the Tamron are slightly lower in image quality, a bit slower at max. zoom (f6.3 against f5.6) but perform at least as well as the nikon in price/quality ratio...
test of the Sigma
test of the tamron
Another alternative could be the Nikon AF-S 16-85mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR: it's about the price of the tamron 18-270mm: the part you loose in range (this lens goes up to 85mm, but you can always take a few steps closer to your subject if needed) is compensated by the more extreme wide angle of 16mm, and adds detail and sharpness: this lens is known to be very sharp indeed.
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You shoot in low light conditions regularly:
Not expensive and good: the Nikon AF-S 35mm F/1.8G DX. This is a prime lens which means you cannot zoom with it, unless you use your feet to move closer or away from the object. The lens is very fast however (f1.8) which means very simply that in low light you can keep faster shutter speeds as the lens can take more light per time unit. So with this lens you can shoot in darker conditions, without flash and still get sharp pics. You can even use it as your first portrait lens: the faster the lens, the more you can blur your background so the in-focus part of your picture really gets emphasized. Attention: the lower the f-number, the bigger the aprture... so at f1.8 the lens takes more light per time unit then at let's say f5.6. Also: at f1.8 the background gets blurred more then at let's say f11...
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Another suggestion might be the Nikon SB-400: the smallest external flash from Nikon almost doubles your flash power (compared to the D90 built-in flash), you can tilt the flashhead so you can bounce the flash off the ceiling, and you can even mount a diffuser!! All this at a more then reasonable price. Moreover it is small and light!!!
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I want to make close-ups a lot:
In this case a dedicated macro-lens is a must. There is a lot of choice. Depending on your exact needs one of the offers to beat today is the Jpanese-made Tokina 100mm F/2.8 AT-X Macro 1:1. at a price of around € 350 today it offers superb image quality and a lot of light (f2.8).
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This lens can easily double as a fantastic portrait lens
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